The thrilling extended contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 drew a combined 51 million watchers in the US, Canada, and Japanese markets. Major League Baseball stated this marks the highest-rated Fall Classic Game 7 after the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Atlanta Braves.
Television Ratings Breakdown
Last Saturday’s memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox Sports networks, its Spanish-language channel and Fox’s streaming platforms. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the previous week.
It also stands as the most-watched Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 edition Game 7 between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement over the last Game 7 featuring the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 placed 4th, the fourth game ranked 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and Game 3 finished in 13th place.
International Viewership Figures
In Canada, the game recorded 11.6M viewers on Sportsnet and the French-language TVA Sports. This was the highest-rated English program in the country since the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding game started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This came after last Friday’s Game 6 – where Fall Classic Most Valuable Player Yamamoto allowed one run in six innings – recorded 13.1 million spectators, making it the most-watched Fall Classic matchup on a single network in the country.
Series Totals and Patterns
The entire seven-game series drew 15.71M viewers on Fox, a 2% rise from last year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded audience growth for two straight years.
Including the opening game telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The overall Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8.09M viewers, an 8% increase compared to last year and Fox’s best playoff ratings after the 2017 season.
MLB announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different tongues.